You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2009.
Or, the one reason other than Christmas that Nasty is looking forward to Christmas 2009.
According to this, Hong Kong is going to produce the world’s first 3D porn movie to be released in Christmas 2009.
According to comments here, several 3D porn movies already exist.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m….intrigued.
My friend from uni., who’s been studying in Nice, France, is currently staying with me on a week-long visit to London.
As a result, I think I’ve seen more of London in the past few days than I have in the past few months put together.
I’m also convinced that I now have the map of eastern-central London imprinted in my head.
Without having Nasty (and his geeky GPS-phone-thing) to rely on for directions, we’ve been wandering around London on foot, stopping every few blocks to study our maps.
We basically walked from Liverpool St. to the Tower of London and then onto Borough Market, and the next day from the Tate Modern up to Chinatown and then to Oxford Circus.
Believe me when I say – it’s a damn long way.
I sprained my ankle just before she arrived too. So imagine 2 days of London, on foot, with a sprained ankle.
The great thing though, is that you see so much more of a city then when you spend most of your time on the Tube. You come across things you otherwise wouldn’t see.
Being forced to look at maps and find your way to places, you get more of a feel for where things are in relation to each other, how far apart they are, in which area of the city buildings are, etc etc. You come away knowing much more about the place.
Now if only it’s not so bloody exhausting!
And will someone please tell me, what is a traffic cone doing on top of a bus stop?!
Taken at Covent Garden in London.
You know how you’ll sometimes look at sucessful people, and wonder how they got to where they are?
I’m not talking about pop singers who struck it big by strutting their stuff on X-Factor or by marrying some posh football player, but those who worked themselves up.
To me, it’s always a mystery how things fall together for these people. Sometimes people ask them for advice, and they’ll say something generic like NEVER GIVE UP!. You’ll walk away with a good quote, but still not really sure what they specifically had to do, or had to go through to get to where they can dispense lines like that.
I then came across this a while ago: Life Lessons.
It’s an article by Andy Rutledge, who is apparently some big web designer.
To be honest, I’ve never heard of him. But he has a page called Life Lessons, and I read it. I know, I’m such a sucker for articles like that.
Here’s an excerpt:
Dare to ask for what you want. It’s the only way to get it, unless you’re the sort to leave things to fate. But fate is not kind and doesn’t suffer fools. If you want to do something, do it. Your alternative is to live with regret and regret makes a poor life partner.
That is good quotable advice. But to me it’s not enough. I want to know how he used his own advice. What did he do?
Later, I had the idea to pitch a deal to the top national print publication for the hobby. I thought that it might be appetizing to them to acquire an online publication, complete with editor/webmaster and subscribers, to add value to their print efforts. It was a vain idea that, on further reflection, seems beyond my ability to pull off. I was just some guy with a website. Surely, they’d laugh me off for even suggesting they bring me into the fold to run their online effort.
I almost talked myself out of contacting them about it, but finally gathered my courage and made a phone call. Less than a week later I was employed full-time and working for a prestigious publication, doing what I really enjoyed. All because I asked for what I wanted.
Because of what he wrote, his success sounds more tangible to me than someone just telling me to JUST DO IT!.
By being able to read his story, you grasp the essence of his parting words better. And you end up feeling what you want to acheive isn’t all that inacessible afterall.
I suggest you read it.
I called my mom the other day to wish her happy birthday.
She said it wasn’t her birthday yet.
I talked to my dad. It was the first time I’ve talked to him since arriving in London.
He asks me if it’s cold.
He asks me what I’ve been eating.
He asks me if I’ve lost weight.
I said I have.
He sounded heart-broken and told me to eat more.
I started tearing up.
He says he’s finally retiring (again). And that that day was his last day at work.
He asks me how my job situation’s going.
I told him I’m still struggling but very happy that I’ve had a very successful first real interview on Monday and that I’ve been invited to go back for a second interview.
He says that if things are too hard, I can just go back to school. Just talk to mom and they’ll help me (financially).
I said I do want to study. I’ve always been intending to pursue a further degree. I just don’t know what in.
He says, if you’re interested in writing, why don’t you go do English or English Literature or whatever?
I said it’s gonna be very costly, and what am I going to do with an MA in English? I don’t want to graduate and go back to square one again. With no clear direction and not knowing what I want to do.
What I didn’t say was, he’s retiring, and there’s no income in the entire household. I can’t be selfish and take a big chunk out of what he’s worked so hard to save over the years.
He then said something he’s never said before.
He said, it doesn’t matter whether you’ll graduate with a professional degree or career path or not. It matters what you like and that you’re interested in what you study.
I felt a tear drop from my eyes.
For so many years, I’ve been told to put profession, security and income over everything else.
Graduating from high school, I was told to go into medicine, law or business. I didn’t.
For years after uni., he told me of his friends’ kids who earn such and such doing accounting, who can find jobs easily doing programming, who earn big bucks in finance.
He didn’t mean it, but I always felt he mean to say I studied the “wrong” thing.
Now, he tells me everything doesn’t matter anymore, as long as I love and enjoy what I do.
I cried.
When I was in school in Thailand, and I saw my parents a year or two later, and realize how they’ve aged in such a short span of time. I silently cried.
I cried for the day I might lose them.
Now, I could hear the age in his voice and I know I won’t be seeing him anytime soon.
I dread the day my heart breaks when I see him again.
A few days later, through MSN, my brother asks me how much Centrum A to Z vitamins cost here.
I said I don’t know.
He says they cost HK$183 for 100 tablets in HK.
I said, ok, I’ll check if I come across them. I asked him how much they want me to buy and send if they’re cheap enough.
He says, no. They don’t want any.
Mom told him to tell me to buy some for myself.
Recent Comments